Failure to change course on the Gaza issue will tarnish the Democratic Party for generations, and four more years of Donald Trump will change the course of the nation forever.
Joseph Geevarghese | Opinion giver
Food deliveries to northern Gaza are halted due to the chaos of the war, increasing the risk of famine
The World Food Program said it had suspended food deliveries to the isolated northern Gaza Strip because of increasing chaos across the territory.
President Joe Biden's decision to unilaterally veto another United Nations ceasefire resolution in Gaza just a week before the Democratic presidential primary in Michigan on Tuesday shows how far out of touch the president's re-election campaign is with progressive voters, who brought him to power.
Nearly 30,000 civilians have been killed in Gaza, mostly women and children, and yet the Biden administration continues to break with the majority Democratic base to join and fund Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government. Is it worth risking Donald Trump's return to the White House and the end of American democracy?
Biden is now behind Trump in seven of the last eight polls in the crucial swing state of Michigan – by ten points in the most recent CNN poll. The Biden team urgently needs a wake-up call.
That's why Our Revolution is mobilizing tens of thousands of progressives to vote “non-binding” in Tuesday's Democratic primary to ensure Michigan is a megaphone for peace.
The initiative, launched by Listen to Michigan, is a strategic effort to send a clear message to the Biden campaign: Change course on Gaza now or risk alienating key voting blocs that support defeating Trump are required in November.
Gaza costs Biden voters: Do “disengaged” Arab American voters mean a Trump victory?
Biden must restore the Democratic coalition
This is Biden's chance to reassemble the coalition that won him the White House in 2020 by aligning his policies with the values of the base, particularly young voters and voters of color.
Not only does Michigan have the largest Arab-American population in the country, it is also a historic battleground state where the margin of victory fluctuated from less than 11,000 votes for Trump in 2016 to just over 154,000 votes for Biden in 2020.
Unless Biden resets his foreign policy, 2024 could look less like 2020 and more like 2016, when Arab Americans and Muslim Americans rejected Hillary Clinton in part because of her experience as secretary of state in the Middle East. Now, in 2024, many are feeling a sense of betrayal from Biden, who has promised to end endless wars and wage them with empathy.
Our Revolution is participating in this critical effort to ensure that the Democratic Party does not lose the support of its progressive voter base and in turn cede Michigan to Republican control and send Trump back to the Oval Office. As the largest grassroots progressive political action group in the country, Our Revolution is calling on our 87,000 supporters in Michigan to vote “non-binding” in hopes of forcing the Biden administration to change its approach to the war.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and former Rep. Andy Levin, D-Mich., both support the effort, highlighting the collective push within the party to correct course, save lives and not lose to Trump. There are voters who, after losing family members in Gaza, may never vote to re-elect President Biden. But as Levin wrote in an email to members of our revolution, there are many, many others who would be willing to return to Biden if we could get him to get involved in Gaza.
The IVF ruling in Alabama is not about morality. Republicans who support it are hurting people who want children.
Biden has a moral obligation to stop supporting Israeli attacks
To be clear: This is more than just a protest vote, more than mere political strategy. President Biden has a moral mandate to end U.S. involvement in the bloodshed of innocent people.
However, if the moral argument and massive protests are not convincing enough, we must appeal to Biden's fundamental self-interest: re-election. Failure to change course on the Gaza issue will tarnish the Democratic Party for generations, and four more years of Trump will change the course of the nation forever. This moment requires unity and action among progressive voters – the key to Democrats’ success in the 2024 elections and beyond.
The carnage in Gaza must end. The president must be a peacemaker. And we must defeat Trump in November. It all starts with making progressive voices heard in the Michigan primary and beyond.
And to President Biden, we urge you to rejoin the base that put you in the White House in the first place.
Our future depends on it.
Joseph Geevarghese is executive director of Our Revolution, the country's largest grassroots progressive political action group.